Any experience with Presonus gear?

[mosc]

I'm looking for a nice small headphone distribution amp. I like the looks of the Presonus HP4 because it has a monitor out with mute. In my particular situation, that would be a godsend.

Does anyone have any experience with this device, or this company? I've never used their products.

http://www.presonus.com/hp4.html

[elektro80]

I have used a lot of Presonus gear. Some devices are good and some are really sad. The headphone amps are decent.
The small blue units like the COMP16 and the TUBEPre are pretty dumb. Some of the cheaper audio interfaces are ... well meant..
The Central Station monitoring box is very good.
Re headphone amps. Most rack units out there are OK, but the features are different.

[elektro80]

I´ve heard many say that the Behringer PORNPLAY PRO-XL HA4700 is pretty ok.

[jksuperstar]

I have a behringer rqackmount headphone amp in my studio, and it works well. I tested it with RMAA and my 1616m, and it's as low noise and flat response as it's 1602 rack cousin. These things have big toroid coil power supplies in them.

Amazing how behringer stuff varies from one box to another.

[mosc]

The Behringer offers more features, except one; the master out volume and mute control. I could really use that.

[elektro80]

There might be others out there which offer slightly different features and still the volume and fade stuff.

[elektro80]

[mosc]

Yes, in my little studio, the MOTU 828MKII is the main IO gizmo. Virtually all mixing is done in the computer. Now, the MOTU main outs go to the output amp and I use the headphone jack for phones. To change the volume there is a teeny tiny knob which works for both the main out and phones volume. The knob is black on a black panel - quite difficult to see. You push it in to change from adjusting phones or main outs. Muting the speakers is too much of an operation in the heat of trying to do something. This little Prosonus thing would not only give multiple headphone outputs - good for jamming and stuff - but it will give me a master volume knob and mute switch which I don't have now. It is small so I can place it in the ideal ergonomic position - easily reachable from my computer position or when I'm playing the keyboard (G2X).

I'm not all that thrilled with the 828MKII but as long as it keeps working I won't bother upgrading. I'm not convinced the mic amps are all that great in it, especially when you need to crank up the gain on a dynamic mic. When it dies I'm going for a RME.

I've read a few reviews of the Presonus and people think it sounds pretty good. I'm concerned that running my main outs through it might degrade the audio, but it might be OK. My speakers are 40 years old - maybe this thing would be transparent enough. I mean, making a flat line amp ain't rocket science these days, is it?

[jksuperstar]

[elektro80]

Howard, I dunno about that one. The product you are looking at is probably pretty good. The features are great. However, to me it seems that you are going about this the wrong way. I think you isolate the capturing part of it and use the 8 line ins of the 828, and then solve the monitoring bit later. It is rarely smart to use the monitoring gear for pre capture mixing. Keep in mind that most of the more advanced headphone distributors are intended for true monitoring and you are supposed to set up several monitoring sub mixes in order to get the "gimme more volume" feature to work well.
The Presonus headphone amp seems ok and i think you shuld get it.. or the Behringer 4 channel, but I suggest you rethink the signal path a bit.

I have used the SMPRo DI-8 some, I actualy bought it but a got a faulty unit. A pot was busted. I´m getting a new one next month. I might probably write a review or something. This one is a line mixer but also a DI/linedriver, which means that every channel sends a balanced signal out to the DAW, or FOH or whatever. The line mixer part of it is meant as a feed for personal monitoring or to the PA or whatever. The unit isn´t built like a Speck or a TFPRO, but it works pretty well. As far as I can remember, the line mixer sounds OK, a bit like the Behringer 1602, but with a colour a bit like on of the old Roland 8 channel line mixers. The DI-line outs are far better and are almost neutral. I plan to put it in one of my racks next to the patchbays.

If you get an RME unit you will be amazed how easy it is to set up monitoring mixes ( and this is where the Presonus unit will shine ).

Actually, the RME kinda begs for a console for the monitoring mixes.

OK, so we have several areas of interest here. One is the capturing/recording input bit and then we have talent monitoring ( which must not be confused with ITB production monitoring, which is something else altogether. )


I think I should also mention mixers with direct outs ( the SMPRO is in this category of sorts, but it also a DI / line mixer hybrid ). If you have a decent mixer with pre and post direct outs then you are in business. Too bad he really good ones are too expensive. The alternative in a project studio is go as directly as you can, preferably balanced, to the sound card and then if needed use a less expensive mixer for the monitoring mixes. Here you can put on effects and shit. Keep in mind that singers will often prefer to have some reverb on their monitoring of their own voice. The new Universal Audio DCS Remote preamp is pretty smart. Even though this one isn´t for you ( but the very neutral mic preamps would suit you well, I´m sure ) I suggest you study the design carefully in order to get ideas. Figuring out why various types of gear have been designed in a special way is often both an eye opener and an inspiration.

http://www.uaudio.com/products/analog/dcs-remote-pre/index.html

The DCS is really something. The hardware is in a box which can go wherever, and the remote uses a cat5 cable.

[elektro80]

A good advice is to ( if possible ) also always record a stereo feed off the room sound or a balanced version of the monitoring feed or the control room stereo monitoring when recording jam sessions. If you have a multichannel recording you will often miss vital information if you don´t also have a fair representation of what the musicians thought they were hearing and responding too.

[mosc]

I don't think I explained this correctly. All inputs go directly into the MOTU 828. The main out of the 828 goes to the stereo monitor amp. This Presonus device will go between the 828 and the output amp. It will provide a sig for headphones and a volume control for my output amp. It's not at all in the input path to the MOTU. All mixing is done using either the MOTU internal multi-bus mixer or in a DAW. This thing is only for monitoring.

Our philosophy about "more me" is that if you want that, do it yourself. Everyone provides the main mix with one stereo signal. If they want preview or whatever, that's their business. When working at home alone, I like to have a couple or three different headphones around just for monitoring. I like to hear different playback characteristics sometimes. This thing will let me have 4 plugged in all the time.

[elektro80]

Ah.. right!

Bring out the card and remember the electro-music.com affiliates thingie!

The Presonus it is.

[mosc]

[mosc]

You are right about recording some room sound in a mix. I wish it was easier to set up. Anyway, every recording of a live event should use at least four channels, if possible. At least it should be considered.

BTW, Mahoney and Peck always perform with headphones on. They listen to the main mix through a small headphone distribution amp thing similar to the Presonus. They always sound excellent.

[Mohoyoho]

We're hooked on the headphones. We are using a moderately priced CME headphone amp of Michael's.
http://www.cme-pro.com/products-list/product-matrix-y.html

[mosc]

I decided to order the Presonus HP4 from zzounds. It arrived in just one day.

Anyway, this thing is just fine. I'm not going to run a zillion tests on this, but I did a couple of subjective ones.

First, I listen to some music with headphones using the MOTU828MKII internal headphone output and compare it to the HP4. Well, the HP4 provides noticeably better sound quality. The HP4 has many dB more output drive capability which probably explains the improvement. At any rate headphone sound quality is a step up from the MOTU - good enough for me since I never noticed the MOTU as being that bad.

I tested the line-out feature of the HP4 in a similar way - listening through my amp and speakers. In this case, I could hear no additional noise or distortion. I know there must be some, but I can't hear it under normal conditions. I can't get the HP4 to clip with the output from the MOTU.

So, I'm pretty happy with this thing. I love the fact that I have a volume control and mute button within easy reach. This is great when a phone call comes in or Juli needs to talk to me. Better headphone sound quality is an unexpected plus.

There is a mono switch on this thing. I don't get why that would be of value.

Thanks for everyone for the input...

[jksuperstar]

[mosc]

Ahh, than makes sense. I remember - mono compatibility used to be very important. I guess to some people, it still is.